“Sub-orbital” commercial space flight? Bah, that’s nothing. According to Slashdot, a new international consortium called Excalibur Almaz Limited plans to launch genuine orbital space flights for commercial purposes, which would represent a significant step ahead of what other groups have already proposed.

The consortium will be a joint effort by the U.S., Russia, and Japan and looks to get underway by 2013. The group plans to use a formerly top-secret Soviet re-entry vehicle, called Almaz, to ferry research crews into orbit around Earth for week-long missions, the report said. For now, this is nothing aside from an announcement of intent, so Mr. Branson can rest easy for now. (Image credit: Excalibur Almaz)